Quote:
Originally Posted by Fleiva
Interpretation and psychologic effects. The basis of soulshots are the increasement of dps.
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Well, yeah, psychological effects. Why else are we playing these video games? Sure as hell not for exercise!
I really don't strongly disagree with you. I do think we misunderstand each other. I have a problem with the SS specifically as implemented in L2 because it was effectively mandatory and quite obnoxious (IMO). This isn't to say it is not possible to include consumable buffs.
I just prefer to see buffs that are balanced by cooldown timers or energy requirements, since those limitations provide an even playing field. I prefer combat to be decided on strategic decision making ("when should I use my Bubble? I only get one an hour") rather than based upon whether or not I feel like ****ing away a constant stream of cash. If I am spending a lot of cash to improve myself, I prefer to do it in the form of buying permanent items (armor etc), so I feel like I actually accomplished something. I don't want to rent my power, I want to own it.
There are plenty of alternative ways to remove money from the economy than SS, and a lot of them stay within the realm of the economy itself (or at least don't interfere directly with combat). Also, they are not compulsory to maintain a competitive edge in the end-game.
- The AH %-based tax is a great example, because as money decreases in value (due to the creation of wealth), a greater amount of net wealth is removed from the system. This helps keep a relatively stable equilibrium when balanced effectively, and can be throttled by GMs if needed.
- Another nice way is to provide XP-gaining incentives for gold. It is quite easy to do this by simply giving the player a 150% xp gain status effect, for example, which doesn't affect combat but does significantly benefit the player.
- Yet another way is to create items that are only sold by NPCs but have absolutely nothing to do with combat. The rich players will often blow cash on elite pets, for example, which is another nice way to sacrifice your wealth to the game for a positive reward.
- My personal favorite way is GAMBLING. That's an awesome way to get players to voluntarily destroy wealth. In Diablo II, I spent fortunes trying to gamble unique items! And yes, I did get some of the ones I wanted, so it felt worthwhile in the end.
- You can also have special event items that require giving $ to an NPC. Money is deleted, but combat is not perverted. So what if noobs can't wear santa hats?
The possibilities are limitless.
If Aion includes a 60-second cooldown "soulshot" that lets me perform an occasional spike or status effect, I'm all down for that
. That's interesting, useful, but far from IMBA & can be neglected without much sacrifice. If it is so expensive or rare that only elite players can afford to use them in PvP, however, then
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A lot of players would probably just be happy to see soulshots removed from PvP, even if they remained in some form in PvE. Unfortunately, with PvPvE it gets a little messy
